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I was spending an evening with my mother in July of 1997 discussing how I would find the courage to reveal to my son that he has a sister two years younger than he. My mother was the only person who knew of this and kept my secret for 33 years. We spoke of this and cried about it many times through the years as we did on this evening in July. I was determined to reveal this to my son on the following day as he was planning a family and I could not keep this from him any longer.

I went home and had difficulty sleeping that night thinking of the most difficult part of breaking this news to my son. While my son had always expressed his desires to have brothers and sisters to share in his ups and downs of growing up, how was I going to tell him now that he has a sister out there somewhere while not being able to tell him where she is? This was going to be devastating for him, but he still had the right to know.

I was awakened the next morning with a phone call from a lady whom I did not know, asking me "Is your name Audrey"? I said yes. "were you born on april 7th?" I said why do you want to know?" (I was thinking someone was trying to give me a sales pitch on something) She then said "please be patient with me for a moment as I may have some good news for you." The very next question was "did you give birth to a baby girl in 1963?" I suddenly broke down and cried out to her "oh my god! please tell me what I'm thinking is true, where is my little girl?" I rattled on leaving the poor women no chance to speak for the next few minutes. I knew in my heart and had the very strong premonition that my little girl was home at last and everything was going to be alright.

The lady was finally able to get a word in and tell me that "yes, your little girl is looking for you, and is waiting ever so nervousely to know if you are willing to meet her and has been looking for you for nine years now." I said, "please tell her that I can't wait a minute longer, and please tell her that she also has a very handsom brother that does not yet know that she exists." The lady also informed me that she has two sons, and they have known for some time that there mommy is looking for her birth mother. I had not attempted to look for her because I had been told that she had been adopted by a Doctor and his wife. I was so afraid that I would disrupt her life by trying to find her, and always thought that I did not have the right to. This lady then proceeded to tell me about how lovely she is and that I also have two beautiful grandsons, five and nine years of age. This was all so overwhelming, and that somehow I knew everything was going to turn out so well. I also knew that my son would be leaping with joy after he got over the initial shock. When I was finaly able to pull myself together, I asked her to allow me a day or two to prepare my son for this.

My son Michel has longed so much for a sibling that now it was going to be so much easier for me to reveal this to him. I thank God he turned out to be a loving child, and an understanding and caring young man. I raised him to be a good boy with the help of my mother and an aunt. I immediately called him at his office and asked him to meet me at home for lunch. I told him that it was very urgent that he meet me because it was very important for both of us. I then called my mother and proceeded to cry with her, only now we were crying tears relief and joy.

Michel arrived and I wasted no time in breaking the news to him. I said, "Michel, I have something to tell you and I don't know how you are going to react to this." "you can hit me, hate me, walk out on me, I will understand". He looked at me in an awsome way and said, "what's wrong Mom"? I said, "Michel, I can't put this off any longer and can't say this any other way, you have a real life sister and you are about to meet her,....if you wish to. " He was speachless for at least five minutes as he just sat there trying to absorb what he had just heard. Suddenly he looked at me and asked, "are there any more?. I said, "of course not Michel, I may have kept the truth from you, but I would not lie to you". I guess it was just his way of releasing a little anger. He took me in his arms and said, "sorry Mom, I just thought I could have a brother too". We both began to laugh and cry at the same time and when we got past that we discussed how we were going to arrange to meet with his sister "Nathalie". Michel's wife Patricia had just lost her sister. She had passed away in her sleep at the young age of 27. Her name was Nathalie. Patricia had just lost her dear sister Nathalie and Michel had just found his sister Nathalie. Emotions were so overwhelming. We decided that it would be best that I meet Nathalie alone, and he would meet her later, so that we could share each of our emotions alone with her. What a wonderful son I have been blessed with.

It was a very busy schedual at work, but I had to find the time to deal with all this. I was far too emotional to be at work while waiting to meet Nathalie. I was able to get a replacement at work so I could prepare myself for our reunion. The following day I met with the researcher who had called me. She handed me a letter from Nathalie that just melted me away, along with photo's of this beautiful little girl that I had in my heart for so many years along with photo's of my new grandsons. (I was a grandmother for the first time) In her letter she said to me, that she had been dreaming a very long time for this day and did not want it to be hard for me. We arranged to meet Nathalie the next day. This was a very long two days.

I was to arrive 1/2 hour after Nathalie at the researchers office so that Nathalie would have some time to browse the photo's of myself and her new-found brother before our reunion. When I arrived, the researcher led me into a lovely private living room where there was a lovely vase of 33 roses that represented the 33 years that we had been apart, with a card that said "bon jour Maman" Nathalie was waiting in another room (I was later told, refreshing her make-up because she had been crying after seeing the photo's) Five minutes seemed like forever and finally the door opened, there stood the most beautiful girl, dressed in a pastel taylored suit. We stood in front of each other for only seconds and melded into each others arms, hugging,trembling and crying. After we settled down a little, the researcher left the room to give us time to talk alone, we very quickly decided to leave and spend the day togeather. It was the most beautiful day of my life. We went and had dinner at a marina terrace and browsed our photo albums together.
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Meeting my grandsons.
Then came the day that I met my grandsons and my mother met her granddaughter and great grandsons for the first time. I arranged for us all to meet at the Yacht Club and make it a day of sailing. We have become so united all of us, and we could not wish for more happiness. We have met with Nathalie's foster mother and father and siblings. We all have become friends. On Mother's day now Nathalie's foster mother Shirley always says to me, and I to her..."don't we have a beautiful daughter." Michel now has his family complete, he and Patricia just became the proud parents of my grandson Yannick. Nathalie and Roger are the proud god parents. I have truly been blessed to have such a wonderful family after so many years of pain and guilt. This little baby girl that I had to give up so many years ago has found her way back just in time into our lives to make everything right again.

Thanks to Audrey for sharing her true story with us. You can read more short stories and poetry by selecting one of the contributions in the list below: